Douglas Murray's The Strange Death of Europe: Examining Immigration, Identity, and Islam's Impact

Hired Ranger: A deeply insightful book descibring the sheer madness of recent years as western civilisation works hard to destroy itself in misplaced self loathing. Often when the majority of us have no idea what we did wrong as we stand accused of things we never did and had no relation to in either time, intent or deed. We live in a time where we are asked to believe 6 impossible things before breakfast, to paraphrase Murray. The prose is all delivered with Murray's wit, insight and clear explanations of, just how we got to here, in a way which exposes the many dishonest and often nefarious motivations that lead us to this point. If you ever wondered to yourself why, politicians and the like seem totally incapable of implementing common sense policies or appear to be utterly blind to the completely obvious, you will probably find this extremely enlightening. An extremely enjoyable read that deals well with what should be an entirely depressing subject in a way that is more likely to inspire a wry grin than have you reaching for the prozac.

United Kingdom on Oct 16, 2023

Dee: Firstly, I’m not a racist; I have friends of every colour and creed. Nor am I concerned about ‘legal’ immigrants from war torn countries such as Ukraine.
What I do have is many (until now) unanswered questions about why our government allows the thousands of illegal immigrants into our small, limited country, with no background checks and costs us taxpayers £BILLIONS a day to house and feed, when so much poverty and homelessness already exists, affecting tens of thousands of British born and bred citizens.
This book goes back centuries and explains why we are in the (seemingly) unstoppable situation in which we are now in.

United Kingdom on Oct 08, 2023

Dennis Rieger: Douglas Murray ist einer der wenigen dem rechten Teil des politischen Spektrums angehörenden Autoren, die auch von linksliberalen Medien nicht totgeschwiegen oder von vornherein in Bausch und Bogen verdammt werden. Das machte mich neugierig, lässt dieses ungewöhnliche Verhalten im oft selbstgerechten linksliberalen Milieu eine hohe Qualität der Werke Murrays vermuten. Zumindest in literarischer Hinsicht wurde ich nicht enttäuscht. «The Strange Death of Europe» ist hervorragend geschrieben. Deutschsprachige Autoren des rechten Spektrums lassen sich derzeit fast ausnahmslos in eine von zwei Kategorien einordnen: Auf der einen Seite findet man Werke mit Substanz, die aber in einem drögen Schreibstil verfasst wurden. Auf der anderen Seite findet man überaus unterhaltsame Werke, die aber jeden Funken Intellekt und Substanz vermissen lassen und zudem oft in verschwörungstheoretisches Geraune abgleiten. Zwischen Thilo Sarrazin und Akif Pirinçci findet man im deutschsprachigen Raum nicht viel. Den Briten gelingt der Spagat zwischen Unterhaltung und Intellekt traditionell besser – so auch Douglas Murray.

Im Gegensatz zu zahlreichen Verschwörungserzählern hat Murray...

Germany on Nov 19, 2022

Apemantus: Some initial fundamental questions before I get down to it:
Why is “diversity” a priori BETTER than non-diversity?? Why is “tolerance” an a priori POSITIVE quality? Why is “racism” intrinsically NOT GOOD?

This is exactly the type of question which is never asked, let alone answered sensibly. I’d like to know on what basis these assumptions rest. But then I’m probably in a minority of one (so therefore I should shout and scream about my “rights” as an “individual” and the importance of “free speech” – which is after all a way to proclaim “diversity” and show "tolerance"??)

Referring specifically to the book’s focus on the wildfire spread of Islam as Europe’s number one religion: does – as liberal proclaimers would cheer - that really make Europe more “diverse”??? (I don’t find a lot of diversity and tolerance in Saudi Arabia for example).

And to repeat the point once more, does “diversity” really make the world a better place?? As the author writes (p.57) ironically, “If there is a bit more beheading and sexual assault than there used to be in Europe [due to insane levels of immigration - the rapes and...

Italy on Sep 20, 2022

SecondThoughts: Douglas Murray’s “The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam” is not only a good critique of policies that encourage mass immigration (especially from Islamic countries) in Europe but also a great meditation on Western identity and the sense that the West is giving up on itself. Mr. Murray sees mass immigration and the inability of Europe to defend its values, traditions, and legacy as being the current root cause of Europe’s decline. In the first part of the book, the author maps out the history of mass immigration in Europe, why it was encouraged and the policies that were formed to bring this about. Essentially after WW2, Europe was in need of labor to rebuild (faced also with a declining birth rate amongst native Europeans) and encouraged temporary migration from their former colonies. This immigration policy was then expanded to encourage permanent immigration including family unification. As immigration became more increased, the local population expressed concern (as demonstrated in polling data) but the political elite attacked any critical sentiment as being fascistic and only far-Right groups like the British National Front openly criticized...

United States on Oct 14, 2021

Bobby Smith: If you read only one book about immigration and the problems that having a rapidly growing Muslim community brings then I heartily recommend this book, as it is so well-written. To start with Mr Murray describes, in often heart-rending detail, the difficult journeys that migrants into Europe face, at the mercy of both people smugglers and the cruel sea. And, once here, they then face another lengthy trek before the bulk of them end up in Germany, by dint of Merkel’s open invitation. Somewhat surprisingly the author is quite balanced on Merkel, seeing her constrained by the Nazi past of Germany and the desire to be seen as doing the right thing, aside from the obvious moral choice she made. Of course, the rest of Europe was not consulted over her decision, leading to tensions throughout other member states of the EU – notably Hungary. Murray then proceeds to show us how Islam is not compatible with the Western way of life, although, as he points out numerous times, our leaders tend not to know what our ‘Western’ cultural values are. This, then, is the crux of the book, how we balance our benign versions of culture and a declining Christianity against the...

United Kingdom on May 20, 2017

Graham H. Seibert: Murray frames the moral dilemma facing the west through a quote from the prophetic 1973 book  The Camp of the Saints . Author Jean Raspail saw ‘A million poor wretches, armed only with their weakness and their numbers, overwhelmed by misery, encumbered with starving brown and black children, ready to disembark on our soil, the vanguard of the multitudes pressing hard against every part of the tired and overfed West. I literally saw them, saw the major problem they presented, a problem absolutely insoluble by our present moral standards. To let them in would destroy us. To reject them would destroy them.’

An established journalist, Murray had the resources to travel throughout Europe to view the immigration problem firsthand. He spoke to immigrants on the island of Lesbos, the slums of Malmö, the streets of Paris. He thoroughly appreciates their motives in coming to Europe and in the early chapters appears convinced that the majority of them have no motive other than to improve their lives.

Later chapters, the bulk of the book, go into extensive detail about the Islamic immigrants. They do not want to integrate. They have no respect for the host cultures....

United States on May 12, 2017